ELLE DECOR's Los Angeles Travel Guide

ESSENTIAL LOS ANGELES

ESSENTIAL LOS ANGELES

-Get creative. The Culver City Art District (ccgalleryguide.com) has 37 different galleries where you can view the work of talented rising artists. Nearby, La Cienega Design Quarter (lcdqla.com) is the city’s hub for the decorative arts, with showrooms and boutiques open to the public as well as to the trade.

-Go west. Cruising the full length of Sunset Boulevard’s 22 miles will show you the variety of ways Angelenos live. Pass through the arty, multicultural Eastside (Echo Park, Silver Lake) before hitting the tonier Westside (West Hollywood, Beverly Hills) and, finally, the Pacific.

-Head to the beaches. The most beautiful are in Malibu, including the quiet Point Dume. But the Venice Beach boardwalk, with its tattoo parlors, body builders, and street performers, offers a singular seaside experience. Don’t miss Venice’s quaint canals, designed by Abbot Kinney in 1904 to resemble the famous waterways of Venice, Italy.

WHAT TO SEE

WHAT TO SEE

-The Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Dr., 310-440-7300; getty.edu: This museum is perhaps best known for its Richard Meier architecture and its stunning hilltop views. A short drive away, the Getty Villa, modeled after a firstcentury Roman country house, is home to an impressive array of antiquities.

-Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., 323-857-6000; lacma.org: The largest art museum in the western U.S. has more than 100,000 objects, with significant Asian, Latin American, and Islamic collections.